MOVIE REVIEW: Cranston makes whiny 'Wakefield' watchable

Friday

May 26, 2017 at 6:45 AM

Bryan Cranston gives a gritty performance as the priggish Howard Wakefield, who decides to divorce himself from the human race by fleeing to the attic of his carriage house while leaving his wife and kids to fret for months over his sudden disappearance.

By Al Alexander/For The Patriot Ledger

The wealthy sure have it rough. And Hollywood has duly taken notice, dropping not one, but two, odes this week to the sinking rich. One, “Paris Can Wait,” feels for an affluent woman who longs to be noticed. The other, the even whinier “Wakefield,” chronicles the woes of a disaffected Manhattan attorney who views his wife and impish teenage twins as major roadblocks to his ability to be himself. Aw, poor baby!

Both movies are revolting in their own clueless ways. But it’s “Wakefield” that gnaws at your patience most, as for nearly two hours we’re forced to listen to Bryan Cranston’s legal eagle, Howard Wakefield, piously gripe about, well, everything, from his perch atop the carriage house overlooking his opulent home. To hear Howard tell it, he’s the most objectified human on the face of the Earth. How dare his trophy wife (Jennifer Garner) love him? And where do his two kids get off demanding that he be a real father? Infidels!

Yes, it’s hard being rich. Apparently, even worse when your priggishness is constantly being interrupted by such inconveniences as working, paying bills and putting up with the demands of people that depend on you. That’s why Howard has -- in the most impromptu fashion -- decided to divorce himself from the human race by fleeing to the attic of his carriage house to live like a raccoon, existing off other people’s trash, while leaving his wife and kids to fret for months over his sudden disappearance. In essence, Howard has become a stalker, a domestic spy watching from his target-shaped window, imagining what a world without him would look like. And, to his surprise, it might actually be better.

At least that’s the moral of E.L. Doctorow’s like-titled short story, which first appeared in the Jan. 14, 2008, issue of The New Yorker. It’s a fast, absorbing read on the page. But up on screen, as imagined by writer-director Robin Swicord, it becomes an annoying two-hour treatise on the selfishness of the rich and privileged. No doubt, Cranston’s gritty performance makes the material palpable. But the man’s charm has its limits, particularly when he’s breaking so badly. Seeing him go to seed in dirty clothes, mangy hair and Rip Van Winkle beard can’t help but draw you back to when Cranston’s alter-ego, Walter White -- another man who selfishly abandoned his family -- was living like a hermit in the snowy mountains of New Hampshire.

As was the case with Walter White, a ruthless meth dealer Cranston somehow made likable, Howard Wakefield is hard to hate. But it’s just as difficult to relate to a guy who gets his jollies staring into the windows of his suburban life, mocking those who love him most -- then blaming THEM for his dropping out. Deepening your resentment is the fact that he’s still OK with misleading his wife, Diana, whose heart he won not out of love, but out of competition with his best friend, Wall Street wizard Dirk Morrison (Jason O’Hara), from whom he stole her away out of spite.

Cranston, as much as you hate his character, is magnificent. No shock there. But what is surprising - and pleasantly so - is Garner, who does almost all of her acting without a word of dialogue. Because we’re seeing her from Howard’s roost, behind two sets of windows, we can’t hear a word she’s saying, but Garner’s complex expressions tell us exactly what Diana is always feeling and thinking. She’d have been a natural in the silent era. Ditto for Beverly D’Angelo, miles away from her “Vacation” days, putting a fresh spin on the evil mother-in-law stereotype bereft of a single line of dialogue.

Like the short story, “Wakefield” the movie wraps ambiguously. And that’s a good thing, because despite all the narcissism, Howard gives us plenty to observe, contemplate and compute, as he dares to ask what is it all for. And isn’t that the question we all constantly ask ourselves? But we need not hide out in a freezing - and sometimes boiling - attic, living like a vagrant, to realize that it’s the people we surround ourselves with that make us who we are - and determine what we’ll become. Which brings me back to my original point: Why is Swicord so interested in a man of wealth? Would her story be any less profound if Howard was a janitor, like say Casey Affleck in “Manchester by the Sea”? If anything it would be more so. This I know, because “Manchester” reduced me to tears. “Wakefield” (coincidentally, the name of another Massachusetts town) mostly made me yawn. WAKEFIELD (R for some sexual material and language.) Cast includes Bryan Cranston, Jennifer Garner and Beverly D’Angelo. Grade: B-